


The World Changes and I Do Not

by Estirose



Category: Stardew Valley (Video Game)
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-08-01
Updated: 2019-08-01
Packaged: 2020-07-28 08:11:44
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 467
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20060824
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Estirose/pseuds/Estirose
Summary: This time around, my name is Anthem, and I'm a girl.





	The World Changes and I Do Not

**Author's Note:**

> I was trying to write something else, but my brain wouldn't stop musing about this, so here it is!

I'm not sure if Grandfather exists, to be honest. I'm not sure if I even exist.

I've lost count of how many times he's given me the letter, how many times I've quit Joja to become a farmer, how many times I've come to Pelican Town, made friends, gotten married, had children. How many centuries I've lived in various lives, how many things I've done over and over. Sometimes the town changes appearance, sometimes my farm does, sometimes it reconfigures itself between lives.

Right now, my name is Anthem, and I'm a girl. My skin is pale white, while my hair, shirt, and pants are as dark as some of the levels of the mine. My farm has hardwood stumps this time. I preferred my last life; the rivers that flowed through my farm gave me so many fish that I was rich by the time I reached the end of year 2, and I didn't have to farm much or keep many animals. I kept that farm going for a century.

This time around, I'm tired. I can never remember what I named my cat - it's always a cat. Shane is grumpy at me again, as is George, and I can't get into Sebastian's room or Leah's house anymore. I'm not even sure what my farm's name is! Does it really matter at this point? I know I'll grow crops, raise animals, restore the Community Center again if I don't decide to get a Joja membership like I did a few lifetimes ago.

Vincent and Jas will never grow up, and George and Evelyn will never die. Farm animals and my kids will be the only births in this place, and after a while, they won't age either. Everything repeats, and nothing really changes. 

(Sometimes I dream of a place where I craft items instead of grow crops, and occasionally I marry a ginger-haired girl who eventually dies. I think I do this because I tire of this place, of all the familiar things.)

It always rains the third day of my first spring, I always can access the mines on the fifth, and the spa becomes accessible in my first summer. On occasion, the second expansion of my house sometimes comes with a bath, or I can access my chests from anywhere. Most of the time, however, my hands seem to know what tools or weapons I need without me having to think about it, which has saved my life so many times.

Maybe this time I'll live forever, be Anthem for a thousand centuries. It would be nice, even if a stream never runs through my farm ever again. But I'm not hopeful. I'm never hopeful. 

I pick up my axe. There is so much to do, and I might as well start now.


End file.
